


Bitter Birthdays

by CalamityK



Category: Naruto
Genre: Birthday, Friendship, Gen, Kakashi and Naruto are the only ones in the fic but the others are mentioned, M/M, its just fluffy friendship feelings, its not even romantic, this is just a fluffy little drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 05:50:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8699710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalamityK/pseuds/CalamityK
Summary: Kakashi has never been one to enjoy birthdays.





	

**Author's Note:**

> allieholloway said:  
> I totally get/hate the slump :< How about a kakanaru drabble dealing with One of their birthdays [either ones] angsty or fluffy :>
> 
> Soooooooo here's this small drabble about Kakashi haitng birthdays and Naruto changing that. Kakashi is turning 35 so Naruto is about 21-ish i guesstimate (correct me if i'm wrong)

Kakashi isn’t hiding...not really. He’s just not going outside today, or letting anyone know he’s home. He’s also definitely not being childish, no matter what Sakura says. He can’t be childish... he’s not a child. As of today he’s a 35 year old adult male. 

He groans. That’s precisely why he’s hiding.

Kakashi doesn’t do well with birthdays. Whether it be someone else’s or his own. He’s celebrated a few with his old team, but that was always after multiple fits of begging on their part, and was usually just to reassure them that he was okay.

His birthday has just never been a priority. He can’t treat his yearly day of aging as the proper milestone most shinobi treat it as. For him it’s not a marker of another year he’s alive, it’s a marker of another year he probably shouldn’t have lived through. As is the life of a jounin.

Birthdays are awful, and he is perfectly content to spend his in his tiny apartment reading Icha Icha _alone_.

Kakashi begins doing precisely that. He plunks down in his old recliner and opens the book to a random page. He’s read it enough that it no longer matters where he starts, he could probably recite it from memory.

He’s three paragraphs into a pretty pivotal plot point when there’s a knock at the door.

He dutifully ignores it, but it grows harder and louder. It only takes five minutes for his resolve to break. He tells himself that opening the door for one person can’t hurt.

Kakashi knows it’s Naruto before he even opens the door. The younger man _can_ conceal his chakra, but never does so outside of missions.

Kakashi sighs heavily and pauses with his hand over the door knob. He doubts Naruto even remembers that it’s his birthday. With that reassurance, he opens the door.

Instead of the angry face of the blond he’s expecting, he’s met with an empty doorstep. He lifts one eyebrow and sticks his head out the door to look around the landing.

“Jeez, sensei. You sure took your time answering. Is old age slowing you down that much?” Naruto’s voice sounds from above him, and Kakashi looks up in time to watch him swing down from the roof.

Kakashi groans. “Did it perhaps cross your mind that I wasn’t home?”

Naruto leans on the doorframe and quirks an eyebrow. “Knew better.”

Kakashi moves to let Naruto in even as he questions him, “Did you consider that I might not have wanted company?”

Naruto breezes by him and snorts. “Like I care. I’d be a pretty bad student if I didn’t at least make an attempt to see my sensei on his birthday.”

Kakashi looks at the back of Naruto’s bright orange sweater as the younger ninja makes himself at home on Kakashi’s couch. “I’m your former sensei.” He pauses, “Is Sakura going to show up too? Or worse, Sasuke?” He asks calmly.

It really wouldn’t surprise him if Naruto was just the greeting party for a much larger gathering.

Naruto shakes his head. “Nah. Sakura said after last year she didn’t see fit to bother you, and Sasuke is off doing god knows what.”

Kakashi remembers last year vividly. He hadn’t exactly been welcoming when all three had showed up at his door sporting a blue icing-ed cake with his age spelled out in candles. He’d slammed the door promptly, knocking it right out of Sakura’s hands and had to listen to her scream about making it with her own two hands for at least a week after. He winces at the memory.

“Yet, _you_ still felt the need to show up?” Kakashi plops back down in his recliner and lowers his mask.

Naruto doesn’t even bat an eyelash. After the first few times seeing Kakashi’s entire face the blond had stopped reacting. _Pity_. Kakashi misses the days when he was still a mystery to his student.

Naruto just sighs. “You’ve taken me for ramen every single year on my birthday since I became your student.”

Kakashi nods. He guesses he does celebrate Naruto’s birthday without a fuss at least. “Yes, and?”

The side of Naruto’s mouth slips down. “Sometimes you and Iruka are the only ones who remember.” He pauses, “So I make it a point to return the favor.”

Something in Kakashi’s gut clenches at how sad Naruto sounds. He realizes that perhaps birthdays are important to some people simply because having someone remember them means that someone still cares, or cares to start with. But it jolts him all the same to realize he helps make birthdays important to Naruto.

Naruto continues. “It sounds silly, especially since I’m not a kid anymore, but I vowed to myself that I’d never miss your birthday as long as you never miss mine.” He chuckles a bit, the sadness leaving his tone, “It took me a while to figure out when exactly your birthday was of course, but I’ve done something for every one since.”

Kakashi thinks back briefly. Naruto has shown up, or sent a letter, or pulled a prank on Kakashi’s birthday for at least the past four years.

Of course, Kakashi has never put much thought into it. He always brushes it off and continues determinedly trying _not_ to enjoy getting older.

A moment of silence stretches between them, and it allows a mix of emotions to settle in Kakashi’s chest.

“So,” Kakashi clears his throat in an attempt to appear unaffected by Naruto’s admission.  “If my birthday is really that important to you, what do you have planned?”

Naruto, who can probably see right through him after all these years, just smiles, “Honestly, I didn’t even plan to make it through the door, I just planned to try.” He brings his hand to the back of his head and leans up, “I think… why don’t we go get ramen?”

Kakashi almost remarks that that’s Naruto’s favorite not his own, but he stops himself before the words bubble up. Ramen doesn’t sound so bad, suddenly. A voice in the back of his head tells him that perhaps it’s not the ramen he’ll find enjoyable, but the companionship instead.

 _So much for his plans to stay inside and stay bitter_. He tugs his mask back up and stands. “Sure.”

Naruto beams and practically leaps off the couch, rushing to the door. He blathers the whole time about how they can perhaps make Ramen a twice-a-year tradition, and about how he’ll try to refrain from making old man jokes at least until they’ve eaten.

Kakashi follows him out silently like usual, and has a thought that forces a smile to his face.

Perhaps birthdays are only bad _if you don’t share them_.

**FIN.**

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta-d. Because i'm me. Feel free to leave feedback!
> 
>  
> 
> Find me at [Sitboi](http://sitboi.tumblr.com/)


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